GCAT's 11-year-old Grace Van Brunt shines at state swimming meet

Sunday

Jul 21, 2013 at 10:08 PM

Elmo Weeks

Being at the bottom of an age group in swimming usually means taking your medicine from the older kids until you get older.

Not so much for Grace Van Brunt. A little over a month after her 11th birthday, the rising sixth grader at St. Andrew's School won four individual events this weekend at the Chatham County Aquatic Center in the Georgia Swimming 14 & Under Long Course Championships.

Van Brunt, who swims for Georgia Coastal Aquatic Team, won the 50-meter backstroke, the 200-meter backstroke, the 100-meter freestyle and the 100-meter backstroke in the 11-year-old girls group. Her success should come as no surprise after she set a national record for the 10-under age group in the 50-meter backstroke earlier this year.

"All the people here are the best competition I swim against, and the second I see them I know they are going to be right next to me the whole time," said Van Brunt, who won both backstroke events by more than a second. "You get more excited about facing these people. I like being at the bottom of the age group, because it makes you so much more nervous, excited and ready to go.

"It also makes you relieved to know if you lose, you're only losing to the very best."

Van Brunt wasn't the only GCAT swimmer to win a state championship on Sunday.

In the 11-year-old girls age group, Tori Rucker, 11, won the 50-meter butterfly and the 100-meter butterfly, finished runner-up in the 200-meter butterfly and earned top five finishes in the 400-meter individual medley, the 100-meter breaststroke, the 100-meter freestyle, the 50-meter breaststroke and the 200-meter breaststroke.

GCAT's girls weren't the only winners on Sunday. In the 14-year-old boys age group, Brennan Pastorek, 14, won the 400-meter individual medley, the 100-meter breaststroke and the 200-meter individual medley, and in the 13-year-old age group, Dillon Hall, 13, claimed the 400-meter individual medley, the 100-meter breaststroke, 200-meter breaststroke and the 200-individual medley.

"We've got a bunch of talented boys right now," said GCAT head coach Bill Forrester. "Over the years, the boys program has begun to grow and we've got some real talented kids coming through all of the age groups. It's a building process as the years go, and there are specific things we do to build on it every year."

This year is the third year that GCAT was the host of the state's 14-under long course championship meet at the CCAC.

Forrester said there were over 900 swimmers competing in the meet and more than 3,000 total visitors in Savannah for the weekend.